Spirit Spills Beyond Boundaries

Transcript

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[0:00] Well, let's go to our sermon now, and our reading is from Numbers chapter 11. A few words of introduction. Again, this is Pentecost Sunday. We just read about it in Acts chapter 2. People from all around the known world gathered in Jerusalem. The apostles were filled with the power of the Holy Spirit and were able to speak languages that they themselves did not know. Other people heard them, and they heard the gospel preached in their own language. The great thing about this is then they went back to their hometowns, wherever they were from, and they preached the gospel there. And thus, the Christian faith was spread in just an amazingly quick way for the times that they were in, right? So that's Pentecost.

[0:44] Now, the Holy Spirit is also in the Old Testament. That's what we're going to see today, the Spirit of God. Now, in the Old Testament, it's not really called the Holy Spirit. It's called the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Yahweh or the Spirit of the Lord. But God is not called the Holy Spirit. But it's still the Holy Spirit, it's God's Spirit. And is it the same? Well, yes it is. We'll see that it's poured out on people in much the same way as it was on Pentecost. And the people who receive it in our reading today are able to prophesy after the Spirit is poured out on them.

[1:15] And we also see, as I showed with the illustration here on the stage, that the Spirit has a mind of its own. And it operates somewhat independently from God, which is interesting. So even in the Old Testament, you get a sense that the Trinity does exist. And at each part of the Trinity, each member of the Trinity has some autonomy, as we will see. So let's go to our reading. It's from chapter 11 of Numbers. So Moses went out and told the people the words of the Lord. And he gathered 70 elders of the people and placed them all around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the 70 elders. And when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.

[2:08] Two men remained in the camp, one named Eldad and the other Medad, and the Spirit rested on them. They were among those registers, but they had not gone out to the tent, and so they prophesied in the camp. And a young man ran and told Moses, Eldad, and Medad are prophesying in the camp. And Joshua, son of Nun, the assistant of Moses, one of his chosen men, said, My Lord Moses, stop them.

[2:38] But Moses said to him, Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them. And Moses and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, amen.

[3:04] So it's fun, it's fun. This year we're preaching from the Old Testament for Pentecost. So this is fun. This is normally we preach from chapter two of Acts, but this gave us a good opportunity to look at the Old Testament and see that the Holy Spirit is actually active in the Old Testament. And you could actually call this the Pentecost of the Old Testament. Very interesting, isn't it? Very, the Pentecost has sort of a, sort of has a prototype in the Old Testament. But if you look at a little bit of background again about this particular reading, is you find in Exodus and Numbers, and to tell you a little bit about Exodus and Numbers, there's sort of this grand sweep of a story in Exodus and Numbers. And it's that God's people are in bondage in Egypt. God rescues them from bondage. But then there's some work to be done. They're in the wilderness. They go to the mountain, they get the law, but there's still more work to do. They have to wander in the wilderness for quite a while before they can come to the promised land and possess it. So that's the grand story of Exodus and Numbers, is that there's a movement of people from one place to another and God journeys with them. But there's some smaller stories within Exodus and Numbers

[4:15] that kind of keep coming up. They're called the murmuring stories. And the reason they're called the murmuring stories is because they all start sort of the same way, which is some of the people began to, you know, they were, you know, they were trying to murmur against Moses and against the Lord and complain about what was happening. And so that's, that happens over and over again. So that's a little story within the story is that all along the way it's not perfect. Yes, they've been liberated from slavery, but along the way they're unhappy. Something's not right with them, you know. And so they complain to Moses, they complain to God, right?

[4:52] And this is a theme throughout the Bible, but it's not a theme that's really important. It's a theme that's really valuable too, that God doesn't really, people, God rescues people. And instead of them being kind of thankful and like obedient from that point on, they find new mischief to get up to all the time. That's just what they do, right? And God doesn't have a lot of patience for it, as we will see. But there's something about human nature that doesn't like change, that looks back with nostalgia to really horrible times. And like the people said, like, well, we were slaves and they beat us mercilessly.

[5:26] We were dead and we were dead and we were dead and we were dead. And they killed our children. And they killed our children. That was all pretty bad. That was all pretty bad. But at least we had watermelons to eat. You know, this is what they said to themselves. We had watermelons back in Egypt. We had onions. We had all these various fruits that we could eat. And you could imagine Moses saying, but they were killing you. They were enslaving you. And they're like, yeah, but they had watermelons. Watermelons are great. And he's like, they were killing you. And they were killing you. No, but they had water. You can imagine these conversations going back and forth. And Moses is like, I can't. He's like, you know. And so at this point before this story, the people are saying, we're tired of manna. We're tired of this free gift of food that you give us every morning, God. We're tired of it. It's making us kind of pudgy. It's like it's too much carbs. And we really miss protein. That's what they said, that we really miss meat. We really want to do our payload. We're on a paleo diet. And we're kind of tired of manna. And so would you please tell God to give us some real meat? And Moses is like, I cannot take another day with these people.

[6:37] He said, I want to die. Would you just please kill me, God, or kill them or somebody? No, don't kill them. But so they were, I'm going to find myself here. Right. So he wants to quit. He goes to God. And he says, how can I give these people meat to eat? Are there enough fish in the sea? Is there enough game running around here in the desert to feed 200,000 people? That's the number. You ever make a meal for your whole family, or people come and visit, and you have like 10 people or 20 people in your house? And you're like, how am I going to feed all these people? Well, multiply that. Moses is like, God is giving them manna every day. This is good. Now they want meat. How am I supposed to do this, God? I cannot feed all these people. I can't. I can't find them that much food. So he says, I want to quit. And what he basically says is, I can't carry these people on my own back anymore. I'm getting tired. So God does send protein, actually. God sends protein, but with a twist. And we'll get to that later. We'll come to the twist a little bit later. But the other thing that God does is he listens. He listens to Moses. And he says, OK, you don't have to carry this load all by yourself. Let's have you start delegating. Let's have you start leading some of the work.

[7:53] And so he says, go find 70 people that are trusted. These are reliable people. These are people who are thought well of. They're elders in the community. Go get these 70 guys. Gather them into one place. And this is where our story picks up. Moses finds these 70 people. And he takes them out outside the camp where the tent of the meeting is. The tent of the meeting evidently is not in the camp. The camp is sort of like a moving city. But outside the camp. Is the tent. The tabernacle. And in the tabernacle is the ark. Do you remember the ark from last week, I think it was? Or maybe the week before? This beautiful gold box with the two angels that are facing each other. And in between the angels, God sits there. That's the mercy seat. And that's where he speaks with Moses. So God's presence is there on top of the ark, right?

[8:44] And God says, take these 70 guys. They are all men. I'm sorry. That's how it was in the Bible. Anyways, take them out to where the hill Asterion is. Remember the mercy seat of God. That place where the atonement takes place.

[8:59] And God sends his spirit. He takes some. It was already resting on Moses. So he takes some from Moses. And he pours it out on these elders, these leaders. And they begin to show signs of spiritual gifts. So not only is God saying, let's delegate. Let's get 70 people to help you. But let's give them the gift. Let's give them the gifts that they need to help them. Let's also anoint them in a way so that we're marking them out as people who have been blessed with the ability to do ministry in the body. And so this is the first Pentecost, right? God sends a spirit to answer a crisis among his people and to help Moses share the burden of leadership. Now, when you think about Pentecost in chapter 2 of Acts, God sends a spirit so the apostles are able to speak a language they don't know so the gospel can spread throughout the world. Because God's goal then was to spread the gospel to all the world. Jesus says in Acts chapter 1, you will be my witnesses in Judea and Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and all the ends of the world, all the ends of the earth. And so that was the goal was to send the gospel out. But the spirit's goal here is to get the people to the promised land. And they're not going to get there acting as dysfunctionally

[10:13] as they're going to as they've been acting. So he needs to sort of salt, in a way, salt the community. And one of the things that's really nice about this is who have the spirit who are well thought of and who can help Moses lead. Cause the people are always complaining about their murmuring about Moses. So the spirit is always at work when God needs to move his people forward. And one good definition of the spirit since this is Pentecost is that the spirit is God's active force in the world. If you're taking notes you can write this one down. The spirit is God's active force in the world. It's how God gets things done. It moves people. It moves nations. It stops us in our tracks if we're willing to listen to it. It's our conscience and tells us, don't go there. Don't do that. It shows us which way to go. He's our guide, our counselor, our companion. It gives us the gifts we need to do what we're called to do. So the Spirit is this equipper from God, this moving force. It's the way God gets things done in the world. It's God's active force in the world. So when the Spirit gets involved, things really start happening in every narrative. When the Spirit gets involved, some things really start moving and happening. It's very exciting. So now, remember about the stories. There's a big story,

[11:30] right? We're moving one people from here. They're going to go through the wilderness. They're going to end up in the promised land. That's sort of the arc of Exodus and Numbers. And then there's these smaller stories within the stories of murmuring, where people are complaining, and God sometimes listens to their complaints and answers them. Sometimes, you know, he gets Moses to answer for them. Sometimes he disciplines them. And those are the smaller stories. Now, here is another story inside a story. And this one here is really cool, okay? Because there's smaller stories, and they're like the nooks and crannies of Scripture that almost hide from us. And one of them is in this text right here that we just had. But we can tease them out, and they speak to us, okay? So you have noticed in maybe just a few bare verses that there are two men named Eldad and Medad. Did you catch that part? And their names are mentioned in this verse and in another verse just a few verses later, or one verse later, and then never again in Scripture. They're sort of a one-off. They're like a one-hit wonder, okay? You don't hear from them again. So you think, well, then they're not that important. But they didn't get the email or their internet connection

[12:49] was down. They didn't know where to meet. They're like, where are we meeting? You know? So they were among the 70 that were supposed to go, but they didn't make it out to the tent. They were still in the camp wandering around looking for something to plug their modem into or something. I don't know. They didn't make it out there. So the Spirit gets poured on the 70, but then it spills out. It misses, right? It finds them in the camp. And the Spirit comes to them in the camp. And they're in the camp prophesying, right? So this is the story and the story and the story. And that story is the Spirit does whatever it wants. The Spirit, you can't make the Spirit do what you want it to do. You can try to pour it from one container into another. And most of it's going to go in, but the rest is going to go where it wants. It's going to follow its own path, right?

[13:38] So it's the Spirit of God. And it does what God's intended it to do. It tends, but then it goes and it does its own thing too. And you can't really predict it. Now Jesus talks about this when he talks about the Spirit in John chapter 3. He's talking to Nicodemus. You probably know this. Go ahead and put that last one up there. I remember this so well from the King James Bible. So we're going to put that up there because it's, if you can read it. And talk about a weird way to talk, but this is how people used to talk, right? I love it, just how it goes. This is chapter 3 verse 8 of the King James. It says, Now remember the word for wind and spirit in Koine Greek is the same word, same as in Hebrew. Ruach is the word for wind and spirit and breath. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Did you all catch that? The wind bloweth where it listeth. To listeth is to choose in archaic English. Isn't that interesting? You're all learning something new today, including me. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound of... No, it doesn't sound like that. It sounds like the sound of the wind. It doesn't say soundest. Okay. You hear the soundest thereofest. No, the sound thereof. But canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.

[14:52] So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. The Spirit does its own thing. Now, if you want to hear it in normal language, New Revised Standard Version is right underneath it. The wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. The Spirit does its own thing. The Spirit is not contained. The Spirit doesn't follow directions all the time. The Spirit is God's active force in the world. It goes and does what God wants it to do. But then it goes and does some of its own stuff too. It pours out from a sloppy mug and it splatters all over the place. Praise God for the Spirit that it does that. That's the Spirit. It does what it wants. It goes into the camp. It finds Eldad and Medad and it helps them prophesy too.

[15:43] Now Joshua hears about it. Joshua is, we love Joshua, but he is kind of a button down kind of guy. Right? Or button up kind of guy. This is Joshua. I have to do my top button. No, I won't do it. Joshua hears about it and of course what do we do with a spiritual movement that we don't have control over? Right? And it didn't happen the way it was planned. Well, we didn't plan that. What do we want to do when someone has enthusiasm and is showing gifts? Well, we want to stop it of course. Right? We want to stop that because we don't know what they are up to. It might be bad.

[16:12] Right? So that's a word for us. You know, we don't need to be overly skeptical of spiritual movements that start. If they are bearing fruit, if they are bringing the yield of the vineyard to the landlord, we should rejoice. If they are doing well. Now we can test the fruits. Right? Now if all of a sudden they want to go live in a commune in the middle of nowhere and start sharing their wives with each other, then we know, okay, that's not from the Lord. That's a cult. And that's happened surprisingly a lot, sadly. But that happens. Right?

[16:40] Now real quick. Let's go back to the outer story. Right? Oh, by the way. Yeah. We'll go to the outer story. Remember that there were people complaining? This is how this all started in chapter, well, wherever we are. The God listens to the people who complain and he sends them like millions of quail to eat. Millions. Like quail. You know, flying around. And you can't. It's hard to know how to translate this. Either the quail were so numerous that they were waist high on everybody. You're kind of running around and it's just quail everywhere. Right? Either that or they were flying waist high and thus they were easy to catch. I think that makes a little more sense. Either way, they were everywhere. And so the people just grab so many quail. There's so many quail. And they're like, yeah, Atkins, let's do this. Finally. Right? I'm going to do so much protein right now is what they say. And it turns out, if you read the story, the ones who complained, they gobbled up so much quail that it started to come out their nostrils. Isn't the Bible funny? Can you imagine? Maybe somebody made them laugh and then there's quail flying out. I don't know. It says that. The quail was coming out their nostrils. They were eating so much quail.

[18:04] Okay. Did you know these stories? Isn't this? Jackie's like, I always learn something new. There was quail coming out of people's nose in the Old Testament. It's gross. Right? Now, here's the twist. Everyone who complained and caught a bunch of quail and ate till it came out their nose died of a plague.

[18:28] The story gets better, doesn't it? Karen's like, what? What's wrong with this story? Well, this is one way that God sometimes deals with murmuring. Sometimes he helps them. Sometimes he's like, I've had enough. He says, if we're going to be able to go to the next stage, we're not going to be able to go with these people. We have to sort of turn a new leaf now. And now we have spiritual leadership. We have these 70 elders. They're going to help run the show. They're going to help Moses. And those people who can't trust me, who can't take my provision on a day-to-day basis but have to have everything in their own hands, they're not going to make it. They're not going to make it to the next. It doesn't say God sent that place. He didn't send that plague. It doesn't say that. So you can imagine that he didn't, if you want.

[19:12] But God says, the people who are wishing for watermelons and can't see that they're out of slavery, we can't go to the next stage with them. It's just not going to work out. So Moses leaves the story with a similar sentiment. And he says this. Moses says, you know what? I'm not worried, Joshua. I'm not worried that Eldad and Medad have the spirit. I'm glad. He says, I wish everyone would get the spirit and everyone would use their gifts, not just 70 people. Right? And think about it. This little sentence, right? Perched in time like hundreds of years before Pentecost. This is hundreds of years before Pentecost. Moses says, I wish everyone would get the spirit, not just 70. I'm not worried about two guys that got it in the wrong place or got it at the wrong time and were prophesying in the camp. I'm not worried about that. I wish everybody got what they got. Isn't he pointing forward to the next Pentecost where the spirit really is now, not just for 70, not just for men, not just for older people, it's for everybody. That's Pentecost, right? Pointing forward and hope to the day like today when the promise of receiving the spirit is for everyone. And so on Pentecost, the spirit's for you. The spirit's for you.

[20:33] The spirit dwells in you. The spirit dwells in you. The spirit is God's active force in the world to operate through you, through the gifts that God has given you. Moses says, would that all the Lord's people were prophets. Well, now they are. And that the Lord would put his spirit on them. And now he has. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you for the spirit. Thank you that you sent it at Pentecost. Thank you that it was pointed forward to by Moses those years in advance. Father, thank you that your faithfulness is with you. Thank you that you are faithful to us. And thank you for this day of Pentecost. In Jesus' name, amen.